President Donald Trump announced in a Tuesday night Truth Social post that the U.S. successfully obtained millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil following his administration’s invasion of the South American nation and subsequent abduction of ousted President Nicolás Maduro.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America,” Trump wrote.
“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
A senior administration official told CNN that the oil has already been produced and placed in barrels. The majority of the barrels are already on boats destined for U.S. facilities, where the oil will be refined.
While Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were transported to the U.S. to stand trial for cocaine importation and weapons charges, Trump has not been shy about being motivated by a desire to gain access to Venezuela’s proven oil reserves, which are the largest in the world.
“The oil companies are going to go in, they are going to spend money, we are going to take back the oil, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground, we are going to be reimbursed for everything we spend,” the 79-year-old convicted fraudster said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference on Saturday.
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a New York jury in May 2024, in relation to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. He later received an “unconditional discharge” and as a result faced no jail time, fine, or probation.
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s, further doubling down when, in 2007 under former President Hugo Chávez, it forced U.S. oil companies operating in the country to transfer control to Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., the country’s state-run oil company.
Transporting millions of barrels of Venezuela’s oil to the U.S. circumvents, at least temporarily, the issue of repairing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, which has degraded significantly in recent decades, with experts estimating that it could cost as much as $100 billion to restore.
Trump revealed on Sunday that he had spoken to oil companies “before and after” the invasion of Caracas, noting the role they will play in fixing the country’s oil infrastructure.
“They want to go in, and they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela, and they’re going to represent us well,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “The infrastructure is rusty, rotten, most of it is unusable. It’s old. It’s broken. You see pipes lying all over the ground, nothing’s been invested for years.”
“The country is a mess. It’s been horribly run. The oil is just flowing at a very low level,” he said. “Even if it was badly run, it should have more income, more oil than what they do. So we’re going to have the big oil companies going in, they’re going to fix the infrastructure, they’re going to invest money.”
Trump previously said in his Saturday press conference that he was going to “Make Venezuela Great Again” and that the U.S. would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
